Jerry McIntire

It sounds like lots of insulation, with mass on the inside of the insulation envelope, is best for the temperature swings of desert areas. Am I reading the situation well?

The constant heat of oversized cities in the hottest zones is another thing.

Thanks for all of your work on the book, Jim and Bob. What a full list of expert contributors to this book!

Lots and lots of good information and experience on this thread! I have some to add.

We switched out an electric head for a composting Nature's Head, great move. Much less smell, and the urine is separated so we used it to fertilize trees ashore at the marina. Diluted half-and-half with water.

Check out a Freedom (30', 35', 36'). Beamy, very well made, and a freestanding mast so you don't have to replace standing rigging ever. They were often available with shoal draft keels, great for coastal cruising and for anchoring where deep keel boats can't go. Sailing Texas is a useful website near you (our Freedom 38 is listed there). Freedoms are also simple to singlehand, no genoa just a self-tacking jib to help with pointing.

Mooring is much less expensive. If you can moor in a field connected to a marina you still get the use of facilities. You can use a rowing/sailing dinghy to get to shore.

The Pardeys book is a great resource. Wooden Boat magazine has some great free boats listed in their classifieds. Not all of them are wooden.

Congratulations on starting the ASA course, have a great time!

Jp Wagner wrote: It's not the wet that hurts the wood but the wet/dry cycling. Only at certain points on the moisture content curve can things grow. Too much or too little moisture kills them or makes them go dormant.

That is a fact. The posts that are supporting a 120 year old church in Boston's Back Bay (drained marshland) have no rot, they are kept wet-- submerged. That isn't a solution for set-and-forget fence posts.

As more than one reply has said, using wood that doesn't rot: black locust and osage orange, is the simplest answer. They will last 50 years or more, and no extra work/treatments needed. With the usual rate of uptake for a new idea, there is plenty of time to grow more, enough to supply all the building supply stores in the country. Black locust grow quickly, osage orange probably does also. They biggest challenge is getting them off the list of banned weed trees.

I love the living fenceposts idea. They won't give too much shade, they will help you grow things that need shade, or they will give you a second crop. Yes, those living fence posts. Bees love locust blossoms, so rather than a problem you have a sweet solution. Keep it simple and you can skip most technological or chemical fixes.

When I went to kickstarter to give feedback on the page Paul has put together, there was a box to click at the top if I wanted to follow this particular kickstarter. I was logged in...

So I assume I will be notified by kickstarter as well as through the monthly-ish.

Janell,

If you are looking for models of success, take a look at The Draw in the far north of Wisconsin. Better yet, visit. They have an excellent permaculture nursery with plants for sale, several buildings made mostly with materials from the land, forest gardens and ponds and ...

The Draw Nursery and Garden

Wendy Smith Novick wrote: My other suggestion is to use the weather. I try and do most of my shoveling after a good rain of at all possible or the very least get my shoveling done before July.

Wendy's suggestion here is the simplest way to make the job easier, in my experience. Wait for rain, or simply water the area where you plan to dig. That's why we save all that rainwater, right?

I'll second the "sharpen your shovel" advice, and the use of a rock bar when it comes to prying them out. Saves many a shovel blade and handle.

paul wheaton wrote:I was reading something recently suggesting a clothes dryer from real goods.  I looked .... it looked really lame and really expensive. 

I've been using a clothes drying rack indoors and outdoors for a few years now that I got from ikea.  A quick search shows that they appear to not sell it anymore. 

In the summer we have a line outside. In rainy and cold times we use a large rack indoors that is Amish made. The basement doesn't smell good, so we dry in our living room now. 12 hours or so in winter when it's dry inside. Here is the rack, small and large sizes. I know we paid much less buying one locally. https://www.lehmans.com/product/premium-floor-clothes-dryers-large/  When they say solidly built, it's an understatement.

The Amish in Wisconsin, where we lived last, always dried laundry outdoors year 'round. A nice line on two pulleys enabled the women to hang laundry from the back porch, rotating the line until it was full. There are pictures and pulleys for sale here: https://www.skylineclotheslines.com/

20 uses for wood ash, from a homesteader. Several of them involve cleaning, including teeth (but not the ash from conifers), metal and glass. Also deodorizing, which sounds like cleaning to me.

https://www.newlifeonahomestead.com/20-uses-wood-ash-homestead/

This one deserves its own thread! Thanks

"Don't shovel when the ground is hard. Soften it if you have to with water."